


nine crimes

by diminishedmercury



Series: SNBM & RRYN AU [3]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Achilles' Heel, Beginnings of Relationships, F/F, F/M, Implied Past Abuse, Monochrome, snbm is still getting used to each other, weiss is still Growing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-10
Updated: 2020-08-10
Packaged: 2021-03-06 01:22:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,078
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25825069
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/diminishedmercury/pseuds/diminishedmercury
Summary: “You always talk about how you don’t want to be your father. Here’s your chance to be better than him. Does Blake being a faunus even change the fact that you like her?” She seems to consider his words carefully now that he’s pulled out the “I’m not bullshiting with you right now” tone that he rarely deems worthy of taking up.“Not… really.” She sighs and sags a little bit. He can see the exhaustion in her features. Emotions...  what an enigma they were. “It’s just— It’s just. Oh, you know what it is!”“Your father raised you to be a racist and I’ve dealt with White Fang assassination attempts on your life and his life several times? Yes, I know Weiss.”
Relationships: Blake Belladonna/Weiss Schnee, Mercury Black/Pyrrha Nikos
Series: SNBM & RRYN AU [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1511165
Comments: 4
Kudos: 27





	nine crimes

**Author's Note:**

> hi, hello! it's been a long time since i've updated this series or even posted a story for that matter  
> my life has just gotten crazier and crazier over the past year or so and i haven't been able to sit down and write in a very long time. but! now i do have some more free time to pump some works out so expect to see more often from me! the goal is at least one fic out a month for this series!

“She’s a  _ faunus _ , Mercury!” He recognizes that tone. Weiss is upset. She wants to seem like she’s angry, but he knows that she’s just frustrated with her own confusion. He’s gotten far too adept at reading Weiss’ emotions to not know them better than he knows his own.

“Yes, Weiss, I was there,” He says with a roll of his eyes. Truthfully, he was too tired to have this conversation with Weiss, but… well, it  _ was  _ one that she needed to have. He trusted Pyrrha to take care of Blake for the moment. No doubt she was upset as well and he really wouldn’t be of any help to the cat faunus.

“I don’t think you’re hearing me. She’s a faunus! And White Fang at that!”

“Weiss. Your best friend is an assassin.”

That shuts her up rather quickly and she gives him one of her guilty looks. The one where she doesn’t know how to admit that she’s in the wrong. The one where he’s going to have to point it out for her and deal with her bitching about it for the next few hours. A heavy sigh heaves itself up out of his chest and he rolls over to actually face her where she’s seated on the edge of his bed. “You always talk about how you don’t want to be your father. Here’s your chance to be  _ better  _ than him. Does Blake being a faunus even change the fact that you  _ like  _ her?” She seems to consider his words carefully now that he’s pulled out the “I’m not bullshiting with you right now” tone that he rarely deems worthy of taking up.

“Not… really.” She sighs and sags a little bit. He can see the exhaustion in her features. Emotions... what an enigma they were. “It’s just— It’s just. Oh, you know what it is!”

“Your father raised you to be a racist and I’ve dealt with White Fang assassination attempts on your life and his life several times? Yes, I know Weiss.” She looks heated at that, cheeks puffing out and flaring scarlet. He thinks that he might be able to cook eggs on her cheeks with how hot they look. “The way I see it is that you have two choices here: hate Blake despite the fact that she clearly regrets her choices in the White Fang enough to risk leaving a violent organization and start a more generally good for the public life  _ or _ … well, you can get the fuck over it and piss off your dad with your cool new faunus pal. Your choice, Ice Queen.”

“I see,” Her voice is strained and she grits her teeth before continuing, “your point.” Progress! How delightful. He rolls back over onto his back, snatching up the teddy Weiss and tossing it at her. “Why are you throwing me at me?”

“A reminder that you’re better than you think you are. You took me on despite your dad’s disapproval of ‘unprofessionalism.’” He doesn’t miss the soft eyes she gives him before she bodily shoves him closer to the wall and takes up her own laying space on his bed. He just grunts and rolls his eyes while she does it— he’s used to this treatment after seven years. “Just think on it, Weiss. Sure, some faunus have tried to kill you, but  _ Blake  _ never has. She’s just made googly eyes at you enough to make me want to puke!”

“She has?” She slaps her hand over her mouth with wide eyes when she hears the own excitement in her voice and can practically hear the insults being used with his name inside her head for such an easy trick. “... I hate you. I hate when you’re right.”

“Take a nap. I’ll wake you up whenever Pyrrha drags the cat in.” He snickers at his own pun and earns himself an eye roll from the heiress. Her eyes are getting heavy by the time he starts to pet her head. He would deny any accusations of ‘puppy eyes’ or ‘puppy voice’ if there were any witnesses to hear him say, “you’re better than him.”

* * *

Weiss is still asleep when there’s a gentle rapping at the door before Pyrrha pokes her head through the doorway. It’s late enough that Mercury had started to wonder if they were going to crash in team RRYN’s dorm. “Can we come in?”

“You two live here,” He snarks and Pyrrha shoots him the Mom Look before she pushes the door further open and steps in with Blake behind her. He can see the red rims around her eyes from where he’s laying. “Wakey, wakey, Princess,” he none-too-gently shakes Weiss awake and she smacks him right in the breastbone in retaliation, grumbling something unintelligible, but doubtlessly rude. 

It’s an awkward moment of silence until Weiss realizes  _ why  _ she’s been woken up. Blake opens her mouth to speak, but Weiss is quick to cut her off with just a hand held up and that haughty look that says “I have something to say first” that Mercury knows all too well. He just knows that he doesn’t think this is something for him and Pyrrha to see. “Take a walk with me,” is all he says before he’s hopping up out of bed and dragging his teammate out by the hand. He pretends he doesn’t see Blake’s worried eyes begging them to stay. He knows this won’t end up how she’s fearing it will if only for the fact that he’s practically taunted Weiss into being better than her father.

“Do you think they’ll be okay…?” Pyrrha asks him when he’s stopped outside their dorm building. The cool night air brings a calmness with it that he’s wanted the whole day since Blake’s “secret” (and really, he needed to teach her how to keep secrets better if she thought a twitching bow on her head was going to fool anyone for very long) had come out that morning. 

“Probably,” He shrugs. He reads the subtle cues from Pyrrha’s body that she wants to touch and he nods his consent. He’s still a little bit caught off guard when she wraps her arms around his chest and rests a cheek on top of his head.

“I’m worried,” she says. He doesn’t know what to say. He knows how to be vulnerable with Weiss. He knows how to care for Weiss. He knows how to talk to Weiss. Everything with Pyrrha (and even Blake at that) is so new that he finds himself at a loss. “Why aren’t you? I know you and Weiss are close but…”

His frown only deepens. She’s asking him for answers that he doesn’t know how to give. “I hate to break it to you, but you’re asking the guy with the emotional range of a carrot why he’s not worried,” he settles on saying with another shrug and snort. She let’s go of him and he doesn’t know why it bothers him so badly to see the frown pulling at her lips. He imagines them to be painted pink. Pink should be blooming. Pink should be happy.

“Why do you  _ do  _ that?”

“What?”

“You constantly tear yourself down! All the time, Mercury!” He blinks. This was news to him. He thought he just spoke blunt truth about himself. “You— I just… You speak as if you don’t know that you’re worth something more than your skills... like Blake...” The last bit is almost a second thought tacked on to the end and he sees a sudden look of realization in her eyes that sets off his flight alarm. She moves to touch him again, slowly enough that he can refuse if he wants to (and he fights down that urge to instinctively deflect because he  _ wants  _ to feel Pyrrha’s touch when she offers it), and cups his cheeks in her hands. “Oh… Oh, Mercury. Who hurt you?” 

“I—“ He wants to say something, but the words feel stuck in his throat. This wasn’t how the night was supposed to go. This was about Blake. This was about Weiss. This was about  _ their  _ growth. He wasn’t supposed to be facing these things head-on like this. “Ask me again later.”

“I won’t hurt you,” She says and he believes her despite everything in his past that says he shouldn’t.

“I know,” He sighs. “And that’s what scares me.”

Silence envelops them. She’s searching his eyes for some kind of answer that he’s unwilling and unable to give her and he wishes that he knew what shade of green they were. Emerald, maybe? Did they lean more towards blue? He doesn’t know. He thinks he sees a flash of pink in her eyes for a second, but he shrugs it off as the echoes of past memories. “We should go check on them.”

“... Okay,” She says after a moment of hesitation, but she doesn’t really seem that inclined to move yet. She’s still holding his face so gently in her hands and he can’t help but to lean into the soft texture of her skin. She pulls his face down closer to her own and presses a kiss to his forehead. He doesn’t really feel himself move to pull her into a tight embrace, but he recognizes the feeling of a warm body pressed up against his own. She kisses his forehead again, one hand sliding around to hold the back of his neck.

* * *

“Well,” Mercury starts, looking at the scene in front of him when they finally make it back into their shared dorm. “Glad we weren’t the only ones canoodling.” He ducks the pillow thrown at his head, but that only sends it flying into Pyrrha’s face with a muffled ‘hey!’ “So, like, are we downsizing to three beds?”

“Mercury,  _ shut up _ ,” Weiss hisses at him, though she makes exactly zero movement towards crawling out of Blake’s lap.

“Two, actually,” Pyrrha sing-songs as she walks around him and places the pillow thrown at her back onto Blake’s bed next to their teammates.  _ That  _ shuts him up and Weiss stares at him as if she’s just discovered the world’s greatest kept secrets. He takes note that Pyrrha flops down onto her bed with a pointed look at him. He’s underestimated Pyrrha. She was just as conniving and evil as Weiss was.

It’s Blake that pipes in with a semblance of seriousness. “Are we… all okay?” Her voice is small and it’s clear to Mercury that she still had some lingering guilt about keeping her heritage a secret from the team. Like hell that mattered. He was technically speaking a murderer (albeit a legal one). He imagined his past was  _ much  _ shadier than anything she could come up with.

“No one cares that you’re a cat if that’s what you’re asking,” He answers with a shrug, flopping down next to Pyrrha on his stomach. He doesn’t flinch when she runs fingers through his hair. “Not like it was really a secret anyways. Your bow twitches.”

“Wha-!” Her face was a deep shade of red now and Mercury couldn’t stop himself from laughing at her. “You mean you  _ knew _ ?”

“You can’t really hide things from him. Unfortunately,” He chooses to ignore the snooty tone Weiss took up and the roll of her eyes. “He’s trained to notice things. Even if he  _ is  _ a buffoon most of the time.”

“If we’re over the whole ‘Blake is a kitty cat’ thing, can we go to bed? It’s like three in the morning,” He fakes a yawn, not really tired. He just wanted to be done with the topic and move on. This was more emotional team speak than he could handle in a two week time period, yet alone a twenty-four hour one. “‘Sides, ya haven’t slept in four days? Five?”

“... Five,” Blake admits sheepishly. He wasn’t really sure  _ what  _ she was losing sleep over, but he had noticed. He noticed everything.

“Blake!” Weiss frowns and smacks her arm and Mercury thanks the Brothers that he doesn’t have to deal with that side of Weiss alone anymore. He relaxes more into the feeling of Pyrrha petting his hair, looking up at her with lazy grey eyes. He wanted to blame the red he saw in her hair on the lack of sleep.

“Rest,” He hears distantly. Maybe he  _ was  _ tired after all.

He wakes up practically curled around Pyrrha and he can’t blame the red he sees on the lack of sleep any longer.


End file.
